Page 63 of A Holly Brown Christmas
“That can’t be good,” Kat murmured.
When he looked at his phone, he saw a text from their father.
Dad: Hopping a plane tomorrow to be home for the party! Everything looks great!
Dad: I appreciate the three of you putting it all together. I’m proud of you!
Dad: See you tomorrow!
The three of them all exchanged glances. Before Lucas let out a long breath. “I don’t even know that to think of that.”
“It’s just Dad being Dad. We all know he works a lot, travels a lot for business, and can sometimes be completely self-absorbed, but he’s more family-oriented than Mom,” Anna reasoned. “And while I don’t believe that Dad’s an angel and Mom’s the devil, their reactions do paint that picture.”
He had to agree.
“Now you need to get Holly back over here so we can go over every detail of the party and make sure we didn’t miss anything!” she said, getting to her feet. “But first I need a glass of wine. Anyone else?”
Kat raised her hand. “I know I do.” She squeezed Lucas’s shoulder as she walked past him. “Hopefully Holly will come back over.”
“I’m on it.”
Sighing again, he stared down at his phone before tapping out an SOS.
Lucas: Hey! I know it’s a lot to ask, but can you come back to the house?
Lucas: We need you.
He read and reread that last line and realized he meant that in more ways than one.
Seventeen
Lucas’s nieces and nephews were running around in the yard with Shmoop. She wasn’t going to bring him back with her, but after the long walk with her mom and pretty much emotionally dumping all over her, she didn’t want to ask her to take care of Shmoop too.
The moment she had stepped back into house, Anna and Katherine had embraced her and apologized for their mother. Then they bombarded her with a ton of questions about every aspect of the party from the menu, the staff, the music, the schedule…luckily, she was a very organized person and had everything readily available to show them on her tablet.
But Lucas had intervened once she pulled the schedule up and told his sisters that they would have to look it over by themselves for a few minutes because he needed to speak to Holly in private. She figured they’d just go into another room, but he walked them over to the guesthouse and shut the door.
And kissed her until her knees were weak and she could barely remember her own name.
She loved when he did that.
“Wow,” she whispered. “That was quite the greeting.”
“Come sit with me,” he said gruffly, leading her to the couch. “I am so sorry that my mother asked you to leave and I didn’t correct her. You had every right to be there. It’s not like you don’t know everything that’s going on. So…please tell me you forgive me.”
Aww…
Holly gently caressed his jaw. “I’ll admit I was a little upset at first, but then I realized—thanks to my mom—that even though I know everything about the situation, it’s still private. Your mother seemed upset and defensive and I’m sure having me there wasn’t going to help. So I’m fine. We’re fine. And there’s nothing to forgive.”
He visibly relaxed.
“How did everything go after I left?”
He explained, and she was mildly horrified.
“This is all my fault,” she said sadly. “I pushed and pushed and pushed and thought I knew your parents well enough to make the call on doing this for their benefit.” Tears stung her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Lucas! Your family must hate me!”
“Um, Holly? My sisters have been gushing about you all day, and do you not remember how excited they were to see you when you came back? No one hates you.”
